Duane Hicks
It’s never too late to turn the clock back on your health.
That’s the message Dr. Dimitrios Vergidis told the crowd of about 150 guests Friday evening during “Dinner with Dr. Vergidis & Friends,” an educational fundraiser for the Riverside Foundation for Health Care.
“I want to inspire you so that next year, all of us are younger,” Dr. Vergidis, the oncologist for the Riverside chemotherapy program and chief oncologist for the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, said during his presentation at the fundraiser, which took place at the Memorial Sports Centre auditorium.
Referring to the recent Boston Marathon, Dr. Vergidis noted the best Canadian runner competing in it was not a young person, but a 67 year-old female doctor from Toronto who finished the event in three hours and 50 minutes.
He added that out of the 950 students at Fort Frances High School, he doubted any of them could complete the marathon in that time.
“This person turned back the clock to be a teenager,” Dr. Vergidis remarked.
“It doesn’t matter where you are now. It’s about getting better from where you are, right?” he stressed.
Speaking from his own experience, the 56-year-old doctor said that when he was younger, he was athletic, but over the years, he found he had little time or energy for exercise and became overweight.
When he was 50, he was inspired to start cross-country skiing and found that within a year, he underwent “an amazing transformation” and started to lose weight.
Along the way, he picked up other sports and found that by only exercising one solid hour a day, he kept losing weight and becoming more energetic.
Dr. Vergidis then rediscovered his Greek roots in cooking, and found the Mediterranean diet to be a very healthy, balanced plan for eating.
Referring to exercise, Dr. Vergidis said that as people age, their muscle cells don’t disappear but atrophy from lack of use. Those same people can “wake them up” by getting—and remaining—active.
Exercise not only increases people’s quality of life, but keeps their mind sharp, he noted. In fact, CT scans have shown that lack of activity causes people’s brain cells to atrophy and literally their brains shrink.
Dr. Vergidis recommended, at the very least, that people should walk for one hour a day, and more specifically suggested they take 10,000 steps a day—a convenient distance since he’s measured it would take about 10,000 steps to get from one end of town to the other.
He added it’s been proven that getting one hour of exercise per day will prolong one’s life, no matter your age.
Weight control also is important to staying healthy.
Dr. Vergidis said that, theoretically, by walking 10,000 steps a day, a person could burn off one pound of fat in about 10 days.
“It’s not going to happen right away, so don’t be discouraged,” he stressed, adding it sometimes takes a year-and-a-half of regular exercise to start seeing results.
In simplest terms, excess food makes us fat, said Dr. Vergidis, adding that when we eat more than our body needs, it stores that excess as fat.
Storing fat is bad because it is linked to many problems, ranging from cancer to heart disease to diabetes.
Dr. Vergidis noted starvation diets don’t work because eating too little actually slows down the metabolism—and fat is stored.
Conversely, eating a full, proper breakfast and exercising “kick-starts” your metabolism for the day.
When it comes to future cancer prevention in recovering cancer patients, Dr. Vergidis said maintaining an active lifestyle (i.e., walking at least 10,000 steps a day) can cut down the risk of reoccurrence by 20-30 percent.
“This is as much as you get from chemotherapy,” he remarked. “So you get chemotherapy to prevent reoccurrence, to cure the disease, and then you do the exercise.
“All of this adds together.”
He also said regular exercise also makes treatments easier for cancer patients to endure.
Switching over to diet, Dr. Vergidis explained the Greek diet is healthy because it is tasty and filling, but low-fat and nutritious at the same time.
In the Christian Orthodox faith, no one eats meat on Wednesdays, just veggies. This reduces the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol consumed.
Likewise, food like spinach (which was served as salad and in the spanakopita at Friday night’s meal) is filling but actually mostly water and has few calories.
At the same time, it is rich with vitamins.
Some tips for shopping and food preparation include:
•eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts;
•if you need to use a sweetener, use honey;
•eat fish but minimize other meat intake (add plenty of onions and garlic to meat to make a small portion of meat more filling while adding no fat to it);
•cook with olive oil and use it for salad dressing (canola oil is the second-best choice);
•try to get more Omega-3 in your diet (the best sources are fresh fish such as trout and walleye, not farmed fish, sardines, parsley, chia seeds, flax seed, and walnuts;
•drink plenty of water, drink black coffee, and drink red wine in moderation (up to one glass per day for women, two glasses for men);
•minimize sweets, but treat yourself with dark chocolate (70 percent pure or higher);
•spice up your life by using plenty of herbs, onions, and garlic, which make food flavourful without adding calories; and
•do not take vitamins in pill form—get them from fruits and veggies, eggs, fish, fortified milk, and from spending time in the sun (the latter for vitamin D).
Dr. Vergidis said it’s been proven that a person who has had a heart attack and then starts following the Greek diet will, within five years, reduce their chance of a second heart attack by 70 percent.
The education portion of the evening was preceded by a five-course meal, prepared by Dr. Vergidis, as well as a team of volunteers, including FFHS teacher Kelly Connor and the students in his hospitality and tourism course, which highlighted the healthy eating of the Mediterranean.
The menu included appetizers such as salmon rolls, spanakopita (spinach pies), tsatsiki with pita bread, and roasted garlic, as well as a spinach salad with walnuts and feta cheese.
The main course included lemon potatoes with Greek chicken, humus with spicy beef, roasted cauliflower, and maple-roasted yams.
Dessert was a traditional Greek yogurt with honey, nuts, and fruits.
Tying into his presentation, Dr. Vergidis revealed some interesting facts about the food served that evening, such as the fact that the food each person was fed that evening included half a head of garlic, two onions, and the juice of three lemons.
The evening also featured a couple of other speakers.
Kelly-Jo Pfaff, cancer education co-ordinator with Regional Cancer Care in Thunder Bay, said the latest research shows more than 50 percent of cancers can be prevented or detected before they become a serious health problem.
She added it is proven factors such as maintaining a healthy body weight, eating a healthy diet, staying active, drinking a limited amount of alcohol, and avoiding tobacco can help prevent cancer.
Meanwhile, Diane McManaman of the Riverside Chemotherapy Unit gave an overview of the local cancer treatment program and the process a cancer patient goes through from diagnosis to treatment.
The local unit can accommodate up to six patients at one time, and treats anywhere from 20-30 patients per month.
Last year, the unit saw 350 chemotherapy visits.
Riverside Foundation director Teresa Hazel said yesterday that the dinner netted about $8,500.
“I thought Dr. Vergidis did an excellent job in both cooking and educating the crowd on healthy lifestyles—and it was an excellent fundraiser, too,” she noted.
The decor for the event included paintings of various locations in Greece created by local artist Connie Cuthbertson.
Event sponsors included the Rainy River District Breast Health Network, Sysco Food Services of Winnipeg, Wilson’s Business Solutions, the La Verendrye Hospital Auxiliary, Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc. (dietary department), The Ear Clinic, Oliver and Irvin Eisenhauer, Erv Parent (Western) Ltd., and Thunder Bay law firm Weiler, Maloney & Nelson.
The Sound Man, Gibson Design-Enchanted Events, Canadian Cancer Society, and Ukrainian Literary Society also helped make the fundraiser a reality.
Holmlund Financial provided the door prize while Cheryl Westover created and donated the painted wine bottle centerpieces.
